Day 6: USING fLINT AND STEEL
Flint and Steel: Flint and steel often confused with the Ferro rod. Flint and steel is essentially how your great-grandparents made fire before matches were invented. The key to flint and steel isn't necessarily the ability to throw a spark using a rock and some hardened metal but knowing what to throw it on. Making char cloth is the real magical secret to flint and steel fire starting. Char cloth is essentially plant-based material cooked without oxygen. This is how we make coal and most people are familiar with that.
One way that I like to do it is to get an Altoids can throw a rolled up piece of pure cotton Levi's or cotton shirt into the can and cook it in the fire until the little flame that squirts out of the side goes away letting you know that it is done. A little note here it has to be cotton, it cannot be mixed cotton or have any plastic or nylon in it otherwise the nylon/plastic will melt and bind with the cotton and it won't take a spark. After you have cooked the cotton, use a stick to slide it out of the fire and don't immediately open it or that will introduce oxygen and start burning it the rest of the way. Once it is cold to the touch you can put a little bit of the char cloth on the top and bottom of the place where your left hand holds the rock while you use your right hand to generate a spark, assuming you are right handed. When you do this, if the spark goes up or down it will catch on the char cloth which you immediately transfer to nesting material. If it was good enough for Grandma it is good enough for you.
